Today more than 32 million people are displaced on the African continent. With conflict, rising prices, and an African population expected to double by 2050, further conflict and a rising number of refugees are expected. The key to breaking the vicious cycle is the youth, who comprise the majority. However, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of education exclusion globally, with nearly 60% of youth aged 15 to 17 being out of school (UN statistics). The ones who complete school enter labour markets where one position attracts over 2.000 applicants (ROAM data), and youth unemployment and underemployment are high. In Uganda about 400,000 youths are released annually into the job market to compete for approximately 9,000 available formal jobs.

SINA (Social Innovation Academy) tackles failing education and unemployment in Africa by creating self-organized communities called "SINAs." The role of disadvantaged and out-of-school youth is reversed from passive recipients of aid to active drivers of their own future through social entrepreneurship, one community at a time. By taking on responsibilities and roles to run SINA, youth create their own curriculum, gain relevant skills, and create social enterprises while leveraging existing strengths to turn challenges into opportunities.

This project seeks to support eight existing SINA communities as well as establish a new community.

Goals 

1. Empower disadvantaged young Ugandans through innovative and “freesponsible” education to unleash their potential for job creation through social entrepreneurship;

2. Foster exchange and collaboration between African changemakers to learn the model and replicate it in new localities.

 Activities

For the new community, this will begin with the acquisition of land and the construction of the new site with eco-friendly materials. For all the communities, the project will support training, coaching and mentoring needed to unleash the potential of disadvantaged youth; monitoring and evaluation; tools and machines for social enterprise incubation (eg agricultural tools); and operational costs.

 A five-step empowerment process supports the youths' self-development of personal and professional skills to create solutions and social enterprises. First, the youth are supported to let go of self-limiting conceptions to discover their abilities and nourish their dreams to build successful lives for themselves and help their communities do the same. Second, the youth learn the skills needed to start their own social enterprises by taking up responsibilities within a community and often start to understand their past as a strength rather than a subject of shame. SINA intrinsically motivates all members with full ownership and community members to take responsibility for themselves; handle community tasks such as accounting, logistics, outreach, and everything needed to run the community; and work with each other through life-coaching and mentorship.

Myriad Canada is working with Social Innovation Academy (SINA) on this project, a non-profit that provides a pathway, tools and the mindset for marginalized youth and refugees in East Africa to shape a vision for their future and create new solutions in form of social enterprises with benefit to society and the environment.